September 23, 2016

The world premiere of The Seduction Theory

The playwright and the cast after the performance with director Hope McIntyre centre

We are in Winnipeg to see the world premiere of The Seduction Theory by Sherry MacDonald. This is Sherry's newest play and it's being staged as part of the 14th annual FemFest at the Asper Centre for Theatre & Film, in beautiful downtown Winnipeg.

Sherry MacDonald, playwright

The one act play takes place in a draconian institute modelled on the training schools, or reformatories, for girls that existed in Canada between the 1930s and the 1950s. The Seduction Theory looks at what happens to a 15-year old girl in the school, and the criminalization and sexual exploitation of young underprivileged girls.

Hailley Rhoda & Merri-Lou Paterson

Hannah Wiggleworth & Grant Burr

It's a dark piece that resonated with young women at all the readings your correspondent has attended leading up to its premiere. And the comments from audience members during the talk back with cast, director and playwright after the first performance recognized the parallels with our society today, especially as society continues to blame and silence women and girls. Not much has changed since the 50s.

The Seduction Theory came about after Sherry was invited to take part in the FemFest Bake-Off. Five playwrights are given three ingredients and eight hours in which to come up with a 10-minute scene. The ingredients must be used during the 10-minute scene. The scenes are then performed in front of a theatre audience at FemFest, with the audience selecting the scene they would most like to see developed into a play. Last year the ingredients for the Bake-Off were red line, hysteria and Yellow Submarine.

The Seduction Theory by Sherry MacDonald was directed in Winnipeg by Hope McIntyre with dramaturgy by Ellen Peterson. It featured Grant Burr, Merri-Lou Paterson, Hailley Rhoda and Hannah Wigglesworth.